I used to bow hunt and shoot in a league about 20 years ago. A friend just bought some land and is encouraging me to get back into it and hunt with him. My "state of the art" circa 1996 Hoyt Alpha-tec looks like it's from a different planet compared to what's out there now. Short bows, huge cams, lots of let off, carbon arrows.....

I've got a lot of research to do.

And get out your checkbook.

True enough, I've never shot a compound bow but I will not deny their accuracy in the hands of a skilled archer. However about 25 years ago I saw some cool looking wood bows at a black powder shoot.

Hmmm, I says, I think I'll go that way and now my mid 50s Root Targetmaster and my mid 60s Damon Howat HiSpeed aren't shot nearly as much as my home made osage or hickory wood bows are.

Archery is a big tent and there is room for lots of different types of bows.

But for me, the simple wood bow, with turkey feather fletched arrows in my leather plains quiver is what I enjoy.

Shoot your Hoyt Alpha-tech and enjoy archery.

$700 give or take $300 for a nice traditional bow. I'm glad they last. I ended up having mine refinished and weight reduced by 20#. $600 savings, since a trade is a crap shoot.

Guess I should be Reflex/Deflex 45 now.

....and whisker biscuits!!!

$$$$$$$$$$$$

Keep a look out on local forums, there is always someone getting out and you can often get stuff at a good discount.

At least that is where my FIL got 2 bows and a crossbow in the last year.

Look at your local archery shop, they usually have used bows/setups for sale. If you purchase from them, you get the support and knowledge of the staff also...

I bought my Hoyt a few years back at Cabelas, clearanced at 25% off to make room for the next years models. Like you, I had been out of archery for 15-20 years. Couldn't believe the difference. Got the bow (a Hoyt Rampage XT) for pretty cheap. It's when you start adding a sight, rest, stabilizer, quiver, arrows, case, release, etc that the price skyrockets.

It's certainly not a cheap sport. The bow price is bad enough but when you start adding up sight, rest, arrows, broadheads...

My last setup that I bought was a 2016 Hoyt Defiant, then add in the sight, rest, quiver, stabilizer, arrows, and case was right at 2k

So I think I am good for a few more years...

Well if you're looking to buy, now is a good time. PSE just unveiled their 2018 lineup a couple of weeks ago, Hoyt just this past week and Mathews in a couple of weeks. Some guys have always got to have the latest and their year old bows come to market. Shops are also wanting to close out the 2017 models to make room for new inventory. The depreciation on a bow is sickening. I bought my Hoyt Podium 37 for $1,400 new, a year and a half later I felt lucky to sell it for $550.

Yes, the technology is constantly changing. It's hard to go wrong with any of the major manufacturers. Shoot as many as you can and go with what feels comfortable to you. It can get expensive, but it doesn't have to.

If you really want to torture yourself pick up a PSE Carbon Air or the new Hoyt Carbon RX-1. You'll love the lightweight until you look at the price tag...

So my early 80's Darton Falcon won't measure up?

It HAS changed a lot. I was big into archery back in the '90s, but I didn't have a lot of funds back then to put into my equipment.

I had a Martin Cougar with an overdraw, which was pretty much the middle of the road back then. I can't remember how long my arrows were now, but that overdraw surely did shorten them up.

I hunted, but I never did get anything. I pretty much just shot targets and silhouettes at our range and shot a couple of silhouette competitions, where I won a frozen turkey.

I finally left the hobby because my bow guy retired from the business. After he and his wife sold their store, our silhouette club farted out.

Right before it did, my buddy just started getting into carbon fiber arrows, which I would have eventually gone to. It was sad to leave the hobby, but just too many others around me lost interest.

Started at about 8 with a solid fiberglass recurve and wood arrows, in high school I bought a Howard Hill stick bow from a guy who was getting out of archery (60 lb at 29 inches I pull a 31 inch arrow) he also included a back quiver, arrows, bitzenberg fletcher, feather burner, etc. yep things have changed, I went to a place that sold archery stuff a while back and asked if there was any interest in traditional archery equipment kinda looked at me funny and said not around here. So I now have 3 bows gathering dust in my shed.

quote:

Originally posted by dwright1951:
Started at about 8 with a solid fiberglass recurve and wood arrows, in high school I bought a Howard Hill stick bow from a guy who was getting out of archery (60 lb at 29 inches I pull a 31 inch arrow) he also included a back quiver, arrows, bitzenberg fletcher, feather burner, etc. yep things have changed, I went to a place that sold archery stuff a while back and asked if there was any interest in traditional archery equipment kinda looked at me funny and said not around here. So I now have 3 bows gathering dust in my shed.

Not gone or forgotten, just out of fashion, they just take more work to learn, and I am the poster child for that, I am lazy and figured it was too hard so I went with sights and all the cool new stuff (which I still like) but traditional is not gone just harder to learn.

There's my daughter's bow in a sea of other compounds at last week's AZ State Championships.

I'm still using several old Bear and a Hoyt...recurves from the 60's and 70's. Did get into stick bows briefly, Black Widow does some wonderful bows.

I absolutely HATE compounds. Not bows to me...Heavy, complex and expensive. IMHO cheater bows for those who can't learn to shoot instinctive.

So there! LOL.

My first bow was an old English long bow that my dad had from when he was a kid. An accident prone cousin broke it trying to string it one day because he wanted to see me shoot (I wasn't tall enough to do it myself). He replaced it with a Little Bear recurve. I still have it.

quote:

Originally posted by FN in MT:
I absolutely HATE compounds. Not bows to me...Heavy, complex and expensive. IMHO cheater bows for those who can't learn to shoot instinctive.

So there! LOL.

Hey, just because some of us have evolved beyond a stick and a string is no reason to get nasty.

quote:

Originally posted by FN in MT:
I'm still using several old Bear and a Hoyt...recurves from the 60's and 70's. Did get into stick bows briefly, Black Widow does some wonderful bows.

I absolutely HATE compounds. Not bows to me...Heavy, complex and expensive. IMHO cheater bows for those who can't learn to shoot instinctive.

So there! LOL.

You must really hate guns.